|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| How to homeschool eight kids with a great books curriculum |
|
| |
|
| Last summer Deirdre (McTague) Mundy, AB’99, submitted a family update to the University of Chicago Magazine’s Alumni News section. Oldest daughter Anne was now a materials science major at Case Western Reserve University, Mundy wrote, while the seven children still at home—ranging from a three-year-old to a high school senior—were homeschooled. |
|
| |
|
|
|
| John Mundy, AB’01, and Deirdre Mundy, AB’99, on a college tour with seven of their eight children (left to right): Ben, Ada, Max, Ella, Cecilia, Henry, and Charles. |
|
| |
|
| Deirdre works full time as a freelance writer; husband John Mundy, AB’01, a former library director, had just finished a four-year accounting degree in nine months. Homeschooling seven kids while working and studying full time? The Core had to know more. |
|
| |
|
| How do you balance homeschooling with working? |
|
|
| I have a basement office. In terms of school, I check on them and grade their work. Most of them don’t need me standing over them. I have a few who will wander off and read. |
|
| |
|
| And you’ve chosen a great books curriculum? |
|
|
| There’s a homeschool program out of California, the Kolbe Academy, that does great books. The high school curriculum is ninth grade, Greeks; tenth grade, Romans; eleventh grade, medieval and Renaissance; twelfth grade, modern. The curriculum has essay topics and how many pages they should read. |
|
| |
|
| Since you and your husband were classics majors, are the kids learning Latin and Greek? |
|
|
| They’re learning Latin. Some of them may choose to pick up Greek, but I make them do the Latin first. My senior silver-medaled in the National Latin Exam last year, and I thought she was going to try to get a gold this year. But she decided to take a break and teach herself Anglo-Saxon. She was inspired by Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf, which has the English translation on one side and Anglo-Saxon on the other. |
|
| |
|
| Were you always strong at language learning? |
|
|
| My first year at the U of C, I took Greek. We had James Redfield [LAB’50, AB’54, PhD’61], and he only gave out As, Bs, and Fs. I was getting a B minus, so I failed and had to retake Greek. I’m glad he failed me. He was right—if you’re only getting a B minus, you’re never going to love Greek. |
|
| |
|
|
|
| James Redfield, LAB’50, AB’54, PhD’61, Edward Olson Distinguished Service Professor, Committee on Social Thought and the College, side-eyes anyone earning lower than a B in Greek. |
|
| |
|
| Did your kids ever ask to attend regular school? |
|
|
| No. They don’t like sitting still enough to want to do it for six hours a day. If they focus, they can get through a whole day’s work in two hours. |
|
| |
|
| Do they argue with you about grades? |
|
|
| My kids are not motivated by grades at all. If you’re homeschooled, there’s not an honor roll or class rank. You’re first and last in your class all the time. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Did you graduate in 1957, 2012, 2017, 2023, or 2024? |
|
| |
|
| If so, the University of Chicago Magazine needs YOU. |
|
| |
|
| Each issue of the Magazine features Alumni News—the first section many readers look at when the new issue arrives. Four times a year, volunteer class correspondents collect news from other members of their class, then write it up into a bylined column. |
|
| |
|
|
|
| You could be the next Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell in the 1940 comedy His Girl Friday). |
|
| |
|
| What are your classmates up to at this stage of their lives? A new job, marriage, kids, publications, travel, hobbies, get-togethers with other alumni? As class correspondent, you can be the one who finds out all about it and lets everyone else know. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Alumni memories: Class News redux |
|
| |
|
|
|
| The Alumni News section runs on the pastel pages in the back of the Magazine. Here’s a small sampling of class news from the Spring/24 issue. |
|
| |
|
| |
| |
“ |
|
| |
I was absolutely thrilled to be able to attend. I have always been a big fan, and my parents were as well. And yes, I do remember some FBI agents checking out the audience. |
|
|
|
|
| |
—Karel Wolfson, AB’60, about a Paul Robeson concert on campus in 1958 |
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
“ |
|
| |
In the autumn of 1973, I decided to take a break from graduate school in English literature. … When my husband sold his chain of stereo stores to CBS, we used a big chunk of the funds to purchase a rundown sheep ranch in Mendocino County. We planted Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, and Chardonnay and started selling our wines under the label Navarro Vineyards. That is what we continue to do 50 years later. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
“ |
|
| |
Unbeknownst to me, I was bowling with a broken finger! Yes! And it neither looked nor felt particularly good the next day. It was still absolutely worth it to get to catch up and hang out. |
|
|
|
|
| |
—Colin Novick, AB’95, on a meetup with College friend Dave Murray, AB’96 (Class of 1995) |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| During Spring Quarter, the Library hosted its first Reg Reads Book Club, with Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez as its inaugural book. Reg Reads is a small collection of recent popular fiction and nonfiction on the first floor of the Regenstein Library. |
|
| |
|
| The five most popular books in the collection as of this summer: |
|
| |
|
| |
|
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
By R. F. Kuang |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
By Gabrielle Zevin |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
I’m Glad My Mom Died
By Jennette McCurdy |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
Yellowface
By R. F. Kuang |
|
|
| |
|
| Unlike other library collections, Reg Reads is designed for recreational reading. If you end up using a Reg Reads book for coursework, research, or scholarship, that’s on you. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Author Samira Ahmed, AB’93, MAT’93, peruses the packed shelves of 57th Street Books. |
|
| |
|
| Alumni: What are you reading this summer? One of the Reg Reads top five? A favorite from your time in the College? Something you had always been meaning to get around to? A book written by a UChicago faculty member or an alum? |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Previously in College Review |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The College Review, edited by Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93, is brought to you by Alumni Relations and Development and the College. |
|
| |
|
|
|
| (1) Deirdre Mundy, AB’99, and John Mundy, AB’01; UChicago Photographic Archive, apf7-05224 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
